1991 AFL season

1991 AFL premiership season
Teams	15
Premiers	Hawthorn (9th premiership)
Minor premiers	West Coast (1st minor premiership)
Pre-season cup	Hawthorn (1st pre-season cup win)
Matches played	172
Attendance	4,178,884 (24,296 per match)
Highest attendance	75,230 (Grand Final, Hawthorn v West Coast)
Coleman Medallist	Tony Lockett (St Kilda)
Brownlow Medallist	Jim Stynes (Melbourne)
← 1990 1992 →

The 1991 Australian Football League season was the 95th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

National Cup

Hawthorn defeated North Melbourne 14.19 (103) to 7.12 (54). (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Premiership Season

Due to the addition of the Adelaide Crows, there was an odd number of teams in the league, requiring byes. Each team played 22 games for the season, with two byes: seven teams had a bye in Round 1, and then one team had a bye in each other week.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

	Round 15
Friday, 28 June (7:40 pm)	North Melbourne 18.7 (115)	def. by	Hawthorn 27.17 (179)	MCG (crowd: 25,819)
Saturday, 29 June (2:10 pm)	Collingwood 23.22 (160)	def.	Adelaide 5.7 (37)	Victoria Park (crowd: 25,164)
Saturday, 29 June (2:10 pm)	Fitzroy 6.5 (41)	def. by	Carlton 8.12 (60)	Princes Park (crowd: 15,147)
Saturday, 29 June (2:10 pm)	Footscray 11.23 (89)	def.	Essendon 6.7 (43)	Western Oval (crowd: 17,536)
Saturday, 29 June (2:10 pm)	Geelong 19.17 (131)	def.	Richmond 14.14 (98)	Waverley Park (crowd: 22,688)
Sunday, 30 June (2:10 pm)	Sydney 14.10 (94)	def. by	Melbourne 26.21 (177)	SCG (crowd: 10,569)
Sunday, 30 June (2:10 pm)	West Coast 21.11 (137)	def.	St Kilda 14.9 (93)	Subiaco Oval (crowd: 42,255)
	Bye: Brisbane Bears

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

	Round 22
Friday, 16 August (7:40 pm)	Adelaide 12.9 (81)	def. by	St Kilda 20.12 (132)	Football Park (crowd: 45,440)
Saturday, 17 August (2:10 pm)	Carlton 12.12 (84)	def. by	Essendon 13.10 (88)	Waverley Park (crowd: 34,588)
Saturday, 17 August (2:10 pm)	Fitzroy 22.16 (148)	def.	North Melbourne 21.21 (147)	Princes Park (crowd: 8,588)
Saturday, 17 August (2:10 pm)	Richmond 14.11 (95)	def.	Footscray 11.12 (78)	MCG (crowd: 15,466)
Saturday, 17 August (2:10 pm)	Geelong 17.13 (115)	def.	Sydney 13.10 (88)	Kardinia Park (crowd: 17,755)
Sunday, 18 August (2:10 pm)	Brisbane Bears 13.13 (91)	def. by	Melbourne 15.13 (103)	Gabba (crowd: 6,480)
Sunday, 18 August (2:10 pm)	West Coast 15.9 (99)	def.	Hawthorn 11.9 (75)	Subiaco Oval (crowd: 35,001)
	Bye: Collingwood

Round 23

Round 24

Finals Series

Elimination Finals

Qualifying Final

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Ladder

All teams played 22 games during the home and away season, for a total of 165. An additional 7 games were played during the finals series.

A team based in the state of South Australia, christened the "Adelaide Crows" after the epithet bestowed upon those from South Australia by those living in other Australian states (viz., the "crow eaters" ) was admitted to the AFL competition in 1991.

1991 AFL Ladder
	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	West Coast	22	19	3	0	2485	1532	162.21	76
2	Hawthorn (P)	22	16	6	0	2793	2055	135.91	64
3	Geelong	22	16	6	0	2660	2021	131.62	64
4	St Kilda	22	14	7	1	2512	2087	120.36	58
5	Melbourne	22	13	9	0	2355	2123	110.93	52
6	Essendon	22	13	9	0	2203	2017	109.22	52
7	Collingwood	22	12	9	1	2349	2033	115.54	50
8	North Melbourne	22	12	10	0	2456	2693	91.20	48
9	Adelaide	22	10	12	0	2041	2282	89.44	40
10	Footscray	22	9	12	1	1815	2064	87.94	38
11	Carlton	22	8	14	0	1878	2113	88.88	32
12	Sydney	22	7	14	1	2360	2778	84.95	30
13	Richmond	22	7	15	0	2141	2450	87.39	28
14	Fitzroy	22	4	18	0	1837	2771	66.29	16
15	Brisbane Bears	22	3	19	0	1976	2842	69.53	12
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Match attendance

Total match attendance for the home-and-away season was 3,810,868 people. Total attendance for the finals series was 381,707 people. Attendance at the Grand Final was 75,230 people. The largest non-finals attendance was 55,735 people for the Collingwood v Melbourne game of Round 6.

Awards

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Jim Stynes of Melbourne
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Tony Lockett of St Kilda
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Paul Dear of Hawthorn
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Jim Stynes of Melbourne
• The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to Brisbane Bears
• Brisbane Bears won the reserves premiership. Brisbane 16.13 (109) defeated Melbourne 11.9 (75) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final on 28 September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.^[1]

Notable events

• The Adelaide Crows entered the AFL competition.
• The McIntyre "Final Five" system, which had operated from 1972 until 1991, was replaced by the First McIntyre "Final Six" system. This system lasted only this season, and it was replaced by the Second McIntyre "Final Six" system in 1992.
• In Round 6, North Melbourne and Sydney kicked 32.18 (210) in the first half. It is the only aggregate of 200 points for a half in VFL/AFL history.
• In Round 11, Carlton kicked its only goal through Mark Arceri 33 seconds from the end of their match with Footscray. It was the Blues' lowest score since 1904, and the closest a team has come to a goalless match since 1961.
• In Round 21, Essendon hosted its last senior VFL/AFL match at Windy Hill—its home venue since 1922. Essendon played its home matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the remainder of the 1990s.
• West Coast did not concede more than 100 points in any game during the home-and-away season, being the first team to do this since 1967.
• The Qualifying Final at Subiaco Oval between West Coast and Hawthorn was the first finals match played outside Melbourne since 1897, when one finals match was played in Geelong; it was the first final ever played outside Victoria.
• The capacity of the Melbourne Cricket Ground was reduced by half during 1991 as the new Great Southern Stand was constructed in preparation for the 1992 Cricket World Cup, to be played there in the summer of 1991/92. One consequence of this was that Waverley Park hosted all finals that were played in Melbourne, including (for the first and only time in its history) the Grand Final. The other was that Hawthorn's plans move its home games from Princes Park to Waverley Park were delayed by one year: Hawthorn had played five home games at Waverley Park and six at Princes Park in 1990 as part of transitional arrangements for a permanent move in 1991, but the AFL reneged on the deal when it became clear that the ground was needed for blockbuster games throughout the year; as a compromise, Hawthorn again played five home games at Waverley Park and six at Princes Park during 1991, and then moved permanently to Waverley Park in 1992.^[2]
• By the end of the year, Hawthorn captain Michael Tuck retired from the game, having played a record 426 VFL/AFL matches (including 7 premierships from 11 grand finals).

See also

• First McIntyre "Final Six" system

References

1. Glenn McFarline (29 September 1991). "Brisbane breaks the ice". The Sunday Herald-Sun (Melbourne, VIC). p. 72.
2. Daryl Timms (2 July 1990). "Feathers fly". The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, VIC). p. 88.

• 1991 Season - AFL Tables

Bibliography

• Rodgers, Stephen (1992). Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897-1991 (3rd ed.). Australia: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-90526-7.